This film looks Hans Werner Henze’s
life. Henze (1926-2012) was one of the
best composer and conductor of the word.
A homosexual, member of the Communist
party of Italy, Henze was also known
for his political convictions.
In 1953, Henze moved to Italy. He left
Germany out of disappointment, as a
reaction against homophobia and the
country's general political climate. He
remained in Italy for most of his life.
This documentary explores his life,and
his love and long- lasting and
fruitful collaboration with the poet
Ingeborg Bachmann. Working with her as
librettist, Henze composed the operas
Der Prinz von Homburg (1958), based on
a text by Heinrich Von Kleist and Der
junge Lord (1964).
Henze's music has incorporated neo
classicism, jazz, the twelve-tone
technique, serialism, and some rock or
popular music. Living in Italy , Henze's
music became considerably more
Neapolitan in style. His Five Neapolitan
Songs for baritone Dietrich Fischer-
Dieskau were written soon after his
arrival in Naples. Featuring
interviews ,historical repertoire,
letters and music, the documentary
explores Henze’slife and masterpieces :
Boulevard solitude, Prince of Homburg,
The joung Lord. The film also includes
interwiew with Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi,
Alessio Vlad, Francesco Antonioni,
Mario Martone, Paolo Arcà, Roland Boer ,
Nina di Majo, Ilaria Borletti Buitoni,
Nuria Nono Schoenberg, Elsa Evangelista,
Massimo Lo Jacono . Betta Piccolomini
reads “letter from an amity” .
Hans Werner Henze and Ingeborg Bachmann
met for the first time in the Fall of
1952. Both twenty-six, they were trying
to emerge in the artistic milieu of
postwar Germany, which was still in
ruins.
The composer immediately recognised in
the young poet a kindred spirit and
fellow traveler in his poetic quest:
she was trying to say with words what
he was trying to say with music. So
begins an epistolary exchange that will
last more than two decades, marked by
pathos, enthusiasm, by a feverish
excitement of life and work, and soon
by desperation. As if in an elaborate
two voice musical composition, every
moment of joy, of passion or love,
every collaboration, or intellectual
exchange between Henze and Bachmann
leave a trace in those letters, a much
deeper document than the absent-minded
tone would often lead us to believe. The
letters also lead us through the most
important themes of their parallel
oeuvres: the hatred for Nazi Germany,
the flight to the South, the freedom
within Mediterranean nature, splendid
isolation and political engagement, an
ambivalent relation to success,
instinctual violence and the mad joy of
beauty, in constant search of an
impossible balance between work, life,
and love.